Deeplinks Blog posts about Privacy

Following the terrorist attacks in Paris in January, including the murder of several journalists at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, weanticipated that the French government wouldoverreact. Sure enough, recent reporting has revealed that France is censoring websites and pushing for broader surveillance powers.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is pleased with the United Nations Human Rights Council's (UNHRC) decision to adopt a resolution appointing a special rapporteur on the right to privacy.

This decision is a key step forward for the UNHRC; it elevates the right to privacy to the priority level that the Human Rights Council ascribes to most other human rights. Most importantly, it gives the right to privacy the international recognition and protection it deserves.

Special rapporteurs are independent experts appointed by the Human Rights Council who serve in a personal capacity and are mandated to report on human rights. They are not UN staff members and do not receive financial remuneration. The independent status of the mandate-holders is essential for the UN to impartially fulfill its functions.

More than 1,500 Californians over the last two weeks joined EFF in an email campaign to defeat a proposal by an obscure committee within the California Department of Justice that would have compromised the privacy and security of their driver-license photos. As part of its strategic plan, the committee had approved a goal to share driver and mugshot photos with a national law enforcement network and allow police to leverage facial recognition technology against the image database.

Apple, that’s who. Or Microsoft, or any of the other vendors whose products US government contractors have successfully exploited according to a recent report in the Intercept. While we’re not surprised that the Intelligence Community is actively attempting to develop new spycraft tools and capabilities—that’s their job—we expect them to follow the administration’s rules of engagement. Those rules require an evaluation under what’s known as the “Vulnerabilities Equities Process.” In the White House’s own words, the process should usually result in disclosing software vulnerabilities to vendors, because “in the majority of cases, responsibly disclosing a newly discovered vulnerability is clearly in the national interest.”

EFF is honored to have renowned security technologist Bruce Schneier as a member of our board and a collaborator for nearly 20 years. But even if we’d never met him, we’d still be incredibly excited about the release of his new book, Data and Goliath.

Schneier has been providing detailed analyses of cryptography, big data, NSA leaks, security flaws, and more for decades (when he’s not terrifying NSA Director Mike Rogers with deceptively simple questions about security). What’s exceptional about his writing and his is that he manages to be well-researched, in-depth, and accurate while remaining accessible to non-technical readers.